Introduction
Knowing about God's attributes helps us properly revere and live in awe. Sadly, many church leaders have failed to teach their parishioners about God's traits. This leads many people to the error of anthropomorphism, the shaping of a nonhuman entity with human characteristics. The word also refers to the mascots of sports teams, military units, and universities. However, God is neither a mascot nor an idol. The prophet Isaiah warned, "The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. . . . They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand" (44:13, 18). Nevertheless, theologians list five primary attributes for God, all charged with the Latin prefix omni- ("all"): omnibenevolence, omnificence, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience.
Omnibenevolence: God Is All-Good
The word omnibenevolence means "wishes good to all." To define God as "all-good" implies that he always intends and carries out actions that benefit his creation. Steadfast love (agapē; G26) is one of his omnibenevolent characteristics, meaning that God's compassion for living things is always perfect. John son of Zebedee wrote, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8). Conversely, pagans believed their gods to be emotional and arbitrary, even omnimalevolent—wishing harm to all. For example, the Ephesians worshiped the Greek fertility idol Artemis to ensure they did not have famines and droughts (see Acts 19:27). In his Psalms, King David testified, "The LORD is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does" (145:17). We have the assurance of salvation because God does what he promises (see John 3:16-18; Rom. 10:9). If he did not, God would be random and inconsistent. He has total freedom, as Isaiah wrote, "Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand" (64:8). However, God limits his freedom out of love for us, even sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in atonement for our sins (see Phil. 2:5-11). God communicates clearly what he expects from us, and he will honor his promises if we obey his commandments (see Heb. 5:8-9; 11:6).
The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC) wrote, "While an eternal unmoved mover moves some things and are therefore always in motion, other things are moved by a mover that is in motion and changing so that they too must change. But the unmoved mover, as has been said, since it remains permanently simple and unvarying and in the same state, will cause motion that is one and simple" (Physics 8.6). For Aristotle, this "unmoved mover" was not an entity with personal attributes, but simply a force like gravity. However, James of Jerusalem described God as an unmoved mover with unique features: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (1:17). To say that God is an "unmoved mover" means he is always reliable in every way. God keeps the scientific laws of the universe intact and holds us to be fair and absolute moral laws without exception. The writer of Hebrews said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (13:8). This makes God both simple and immutable—unable to change or be changed.
God is holy and righteous, as both concepts are implied in the doctrine of omnibenevolence. These words mean that God is both materially set apart—sacred—from the universe he created and morally separate from it. "Holy" is the only adjective that scripture qualifies three times:
Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory (Isa. 6:3).
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come (Rev. 4:8).
In his letter to the church of Philippi, Paul listed God's moral characteristics as a model for us to follow: "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things" (Phil. 4:8).
Omnificence: God Is All-Creating
To define God as omnificent requires both cataphatic and apophatic methods. Simply put, we must be willing to say what God is and is not. The word omnificent means "all-creating" without limits. In Genesis, God created the entire universe "out of nothing" (Latin: ex nihilo), which makes his power expansive. Everything he made was primordial "very good" by his omnibenevolence (see Gen. 1-2). However, there are things God cannot do! To begin with, he did not create evil, nor can he sin—he is impeccable. God cannot make something against his divine nature, nor can he exceed himself. No, God cannot make a rock so big that even he can't lift it! Why? Because God cannot and will not stop being God (see Mal. 3:6). He does not tempt us, nor is he able to lie to us (see Num. 23:19; James 1:13; Titus 1:2). God is omnificent when he forms things consistent with his divine nature and total goodness. David wrote, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands" (Ps. 19:1).
Omnipotence: God Is All-Powerful
The Latin word omnipotentia means "all power." God is almighty and decisive in everything that he does according to his divine nature (see Ps. 115:3; Isa. 55:11), and nothing is too hard for him (see Gen. 18:14; Jer. 32:17). God does not depend on anyone or anything, but exists entirely within himself—the doctrine of aseity (Latin: a se, "from oneself"). When Paul of Tarsus testified in Athens at the Areopagus, he described God's aseity: "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else" (Acts 17:24-25). Paul spoke of God's transcendence and immanence, saying he is far away in the heavens and close to where we live (see Acts 17:26-31). Although God calls all of us to repent (v. 30), his sovereign power allows him to use even our wicked choices for his purposes (see Gen. 45:5-8; Exod. 4:21 [Rom. 9:17]; Ps. 105:24-25; Rom 9:18; Acts 2:23). He is both universal and everlasting, without source or conclusion (see Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13).
In his power, God builds nations, allocating their land, resources, and borders and installing their leaders (see Isa. 44:28; Acts 17:26). He directs the entire course of human history and our personal lives. Moreover, God forms our bodies in our mothers' wombs (see Ps. 139:13-16). He can and only use his powers for good, giving us faith and eternal life (see Eph. 2:8-10; Acts 13:48). Jews begin their prayers with "Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the universe," acknowledging that God's reign is universal (see Lam. 3:37-38; Rom. 8:28; 11:33-36 [Isa. 40:13; Job 41:11]; Eph. 1:1).
El Shaddai (H410; H7706) is one of the most well-known titles for God, meaning "God Almighty." When the Hebrew patriarch Jacob blessed Joseph to lead one of the twelve tribes of Israel, he said, "Because of your father's God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb" (Gen. 49:25). Paul was the only New Testament writer to use the noun Pantokratōr (G3841), the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew title El Shaddai. He did so to translate El Shaddai when quoting from the prophet Samuel (2 Cor. 6:18; cf. 2 Sam. 7:8; 7:14). The noun Pantokratōr includes the words pan ("all," G3956) and krateō ("to rule" or "to prevail," G2902). Because Jesus is one with God in the Trinity with the Holy Spirit (see John 10:30; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 8:6), he rightly called himself Pantokratōr nine times in Revelation. The most striking one is: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8). Incidentally, the translators of the King James Version rendered Pantokratōr once as "omnipotent" in Revelation 19:6: "I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."
Omnipresence: God Is All-Present
In Latin, omnipraesentis means "to be in all places" simultaneously. The psalmist asked God, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast" (Ps. 139:7-10).
Simply put, there is nowhere to go that we may escape God. Jesus told the Samaritan woman, "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). The Spirit of God permeates everything in the world. He is present in all locations at all times without beginning or end. God is infinite, existing in time and place without being confined to them. Moreover, God presented himself in the burning bush to Moses, in pillars of cloud and fire during the exodus, and in the discernible Shechinah (H7931) glory which filled the Holy of Holies (see Exod. 3:1-3; 13:21; Ezek. 9:3). The incarnation of Jesus in flesh and blood also refers to God's omnipresence, as the prophet Isaiah called him Immanuel, "God is with us" (7:14). In his gospel, John wrote, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling [eskēnōsen; G4637, "tabernacled"] among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (1:14). Jesus also claimed God's omnipresence for himself when he said, "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them" (Matt. 18:20). He was rewording this common Jewish lesson: "If two sit together and there are words of Torah spoken between them, then the Shechinah abides among them" (Pirkei Avot 3:3). Jesus was claiming to be the visible omnipresence of God!
God's omnipresence does not mean he is substantially or essentially part of the material world, nor does he intersect with it. Theologians name these respective concepts pantheism and panentheism. Stated plainly, the Spirit of God is not part of the universe or found in trees and rocks. Paul said, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse" (Rom. 1:20). He was alluding to God's omnipotence and omnipresence, known to us by the things we see in our world.
Interestingly, Peter wrote, "Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires" (2 Pet. 1:4). The Greek Orthodox refer to the process of sanctification as theōsis, to become like God. However, becoming like God pertains to us regaining the "image of God" (Latin: imago Dei) that we lost in the fall of Adam and Eve. We cannot become gods in the pantheistic or panentheistic senses, as this was Satan's lie in the Garden of Eden (see Gen. 3:5). We may discern God's presence when we pray or worship, but his omnipresence will always elude us this side of heaven. In Revelation, John said, "I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp" (21:22-23). The Shechinah glory will fill the New Jerusalem, and we will see God's omnipresence forever.
Omniscience: God Is All-Knowing
The Latin word omniscientia means "all knowledge." Scientia is the etymological root of the word "science." God considers all matters necessary, from an animal's welfare to the number of hairs on our heads (see Matt 6:26-30; 10:29-30). Psalm 139 is the go-to Bible passage to learn about God's omniscience, highlighting God's intimate knowledge of us wherever we go. The psalmist acclaimed, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain" (v. 6). God knows us anywhere and everywhere: to the heavens and outer space, in the grave and the ocean depths, in the world's furthest reaches, and even in the darkest of places (vv. 7-12). He foreknew our gestation before birth and the entirety of our lifespans (vv. 13-16).
In Proverbs, King Solomon wrote, "The LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding" (see 1 Kgs. 3:9-12), an ability that most of us find unsettling. Even in our theological debates about predestination and free will, we often try to answer this dilemma by limiting God's knowledge—especially his foreknowledge. He foreknew the crucifixion of Jesus (see Acts 2:23). Likewise, Paul said, "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters" (Rom. 8:29). In the same letter, Paul wrote, "God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew" (11:2). Why does God's omniscience bother us more than his other attributes? Because it means our free will is not as consequential as it seems. We stand naked before God like Adam and Eve, who ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (see Gen. 2:17; 3:7-11). His omniscience is our greatest primeval and contemporary fear.
Nevertheless, the Molinist doctrine of middle knowledge (Latin: scientia media) should relieve us. In his middle knowledge, God orchestrates events in our lives that look like free choices but are a slew of options of which he already foreknows the outcome of each possibility. Indeed, God's foreknowledge of every possible world shows us the extent of his omniscience.
Conclusion: Knowing God's Attributes
We employ the word theology, the "study of God" (Theos; G2316; logos; G3056), as a broad range of topics that directly and indirectly relate to God. However, the particular study of God the Father is called paterology, which relates to the studies of Christ Jesus ("christology") and the Holy Spirit ("pneumatology"). The most controversial paterological doctrine is impassibility, which means God is "unable to experience pain or suffering." This is the main reason Rabbinical Jews today reject Jesus as their Messiah. In their strict idea of nontrinitarian Jewish monotheism, a suffering deity is both pagan and absurd—an anthropomorphic one. Because Christians worship Jesus as God who once suffered death and pain, impassibility only applies to God when he does not limit it himself. Even Jesus' apostles found his passion on the cross an embarrassment to their Jewish heritage. For example, Peter once rebuked Jesus, "Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!" (Matt. 16:22). However, there is a hypostatic difference between the Father and the Son, meaning they communicate properties (Latin: Communicatio idiomatum) while sharing the same essence (think DNA). However, they do not have the same physical experiences. The Father is the spiritual form of God, and the Son is the material one. This was the reason Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" on the cross (see Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34).
The prophet Isaiah foresaw the passibility of God the Son. Rabbinical Jews claim his passage about the "suffering servant" is about the nation of Israel. However, a plain reading of Isaiah 53 makes this impossible. Isaiah wrote, "He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth" (v. 9). Given the entire Old Testament history of Israel, especially the Prophets (Hebrew: Nevi'im; H5030), it is apparent that it does not and will never meet this criterion. Isaiah's "suffering servant" is righteous (v. 11) and impeccable, attributes that belong to God alone. Jesus alone "was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth" (v. 7). God is simple because he has substance but no accidental traits—he is Spirit.
Prayer
Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the universe; you have given us grace at this time, with one accord to make our common supplications to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his name, you will grant their requests. Fulfill our desires and petitions as may be best for us; give us knowledge of your truth today and everlasting life in the coming age. Amen.
Bibliography
Aristotle. Physics 8.6. Trans. R. P. Hardie and R. K. Gaye. Daniel C. Stevenson, edited for the Internet Classics Archive. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/physics.8.viii.html.
Bodnar, Istvan. "Aristotle's Natural Philosophy." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford Univ., 2023. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-natphil/#MoveUnmoMove.
The Book of Common Prayer. Huntington Beach, CA: Anglican Liturgy Press, 2019. p. 26. http://bcp2019.anglicanchurch.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BCP2019.pdf.
Carson, D. A. The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2000.
⸻. The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.
Danker, Ryan N., ed. The Faith Once Delivered: A Wesleyan Witness to Christian Orthodoxy. Alexandria, VA: John Wesley Institute, 2022. pp. 7–10. https://nextmethodism.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Faith-Once-Delivered-FINAL-1.pdf.
Frame, John M. "The Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence of God." Columbia, MO: The Gospel Coalition. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/omnipotence-omniscience-omnipresence-god.
⸻. "The Eternality and Aseity of God." Columbia, MO: The Gospel Coalition. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/eternality-aseity-god.
Geisler, Norman L. Chosen But Free: A Balanced View of God's Sovereignty and Free Will. Third ed. Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2010.
González, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought, Vol. 1: From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon. Nashville: Abingdon, 1987.
Lints, Richard. "The Attributes of God." Columbia, MO: The Gospel Coalition. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-attributes-of-god.
Louth, Andrew. "Apophatic and Cataphatic Theology" in The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism. Eds. Amy Hollywood and Patricia Z. Beckman (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2012): 137–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCO9781139020886.008.
McReynolds, Paul R., ed. Word Study Greek–English New Testament: with Complete Concordance. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1999.
Nally, Joseph R., Jr. "Is God Omnificent?" Thirdmill. Casselberry, FL: Third Millennium Ministries, Inc. https://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp?file=48981.
⸻. "Things God Can't Do?" https://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/40571.
Newton, Melanie. "Lesson 2: God's Power, Presence, and Perception (the Omnis)." Bible.org. Richardson, TX: Biblical Studies Foundation, 2019. https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-2-god-s-power-presence-and-perception-omnis.
Pawl, Tim. "Divine Immutability." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Univ. of Tennessee at Martin. https://iep.utm.edu/div-immu.
Perszyk, Ken, ed. Molinism: The Contemporary Debate. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2011.
Sanders, Al. "Magnitude of God: Omniscience and Omnipresence, Psalm 139, Book 1." Studies in Psalms. La Mirada, CA: Biola Univ., 1982. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/235996449.pdf.
Spangler, Ann, and Lois Tverberg. Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2018.
Tverberg, Lois. "Where Two or Three are Gathered . . ." Our Rabbi Jesus (blog). April 18, 2018. https://ourrabbijesus.com/where-two-or-three-are-gathered.
Weigel, Peter. "Divine Simplicity." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Univ. of Tennessee at Martin. https://iep.utm.edu/div-simp.
Wierenga, Edward. "Omniscience." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford Univ., 2021. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/omniscience.